House panel may unveil CR today

Sep. 10, 2013 - 02:43PM
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Rep. Hal Rogers (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

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The House Appropriations Committee will release the text of a continuing resolution as early as Tuesday, with the full House scheduled to take up the stop-gap spending bill two days later, according to congressional aides.

The measure will likely be needed to avoid a partial government shutdown when the new fiscal year begins next month. Lawmakers have not given final approval to any of the dozen full-year appropriations bills otherwise needed to keep agencies in operation.

The appropriations committee’s chairman, Hal Rogers, R-Ky., is seeking a short-term “clean” measure that would keep agency funding at current post-sequester levels, spokeswoman Jennifer Hing said, adding in an email that the bill could be made public as early as Tuesday. The House will then take up the measure Thursday, according to an aide to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.

At Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group that monitors spending legislation, Vice President Steve Ellis said he had heard that a CR could last about two months. Although several weeks remain in this fiscal year for lawmakers to act on full-year spending legislation, Ellis said, “When you have absolutely no prospect of success in getting any bills done, it’s like, ‘Why wait?’ ”